'find' command - list all paths containing the search string?

peter7089 · 10-23-2017, 12:25 PM

If i do a search like this 'locate init.d' it lists all paths containing 'init.d':

Code:

/etc/init.d
/etc/init.d/anacron
/etc/init.d/bluetooth
/etc/init.d/console-setup.sh
/etc/init.d/cron
/etc/init.d/dbus
/etc/init.d/hwclock.sh
/etc/init.d/keyboard-setup.sh
/etc/init.d/kmod
/etc/init.d/networking
/etc/init.d/procps
/etc/init.d/rsyslog
/etc/init.d/ssh
/etc/init.d/sudo
/etc/init.d/udev

How can i do this with the 'find' command? I tried 'sudo find / -name *init.d*' but it didn't work, or at least i get a different result:

Code:

/sys/module/parport_pc/sections/.init.data
/sys/module/libata/sections/.init.data
/sys/module/scsi_mod/sections/.init.data
/etc/init.d

Keith Hedger · 10-23-2017, 12:27 PM

see the man page, hint -type d

peter7089 · 10-23-2017, 01:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Keith Hedger

see the man page, hint -type d

Not working:

Code:

max@debian:~$ sudo find / -type d -name  *init.d*
/etc/init.d

Turbocapitalist · 10-23-2017, 01:40 PM

Try with quotes so that the shell does not process the asterisks before sending the results to find.

Code:

$ sudo find / -type d -name "*init.d*" -print

See also "man find" versus "man 7 glob"

I get the same output:

Code:

max@debian:~$ sudo find / -type d -name "*init.d*" -print
/etc/init.d

Turbocapitalist · 10-23-2017, 02:48 PM

Sorry. I should have read the original example more closely.

Code:

find / -path '*init.d*' -print

Be sure to check the other options in the manual page

Code:

man find

Also, remember that between the options there is an implied logical AND. If you want a logical OR, you have to pay attention to operator precedence and often group options using parenthesis.

peter7089 · 10-24-2017, 02:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Turbocapitalist

Code:

find / -path '*init.d*' -print

It kind of works but also lists paths from /proc directory with 'permission denied' at the end of the line even so i am running the command as root. I guess it's better to stick with 'locate' command for that kind of searches.

Turbocapitalist · 10-24-2017, 03:03 AM

You can exclude things by using the -prune option

Code:

find / \( -path '/proc' -o -path '/run' -o -path '/sys' -o -path '/tmp' \) -prune \
        -o -path '*init.d*' -print

There will be nothing relevant in the /proc directory. See "man 7 hier" about that.

What are you really trying to do?

michaelk · 10-24-2017, 06:10 AM

In addition to what Turbocapitalist posted locate only searches a database versus the actual filesystem. The database stores paths/filenames as defined in the /etc/updatedb.conf file and by default typically excludes everything that is not part of the "base" system i.e. no external media, network shares, virtual filesystems i.e /proc etc. It is also typically only updated once a day so that it can contain stale or incomplete data if searching for something that was recently created or deleted.

find searches the actual directory tree and so includes everything in your case since your starting from the top. It has many options and can be quite complicated so what search tool to use depends on what you want to find. As you have concluded if all you want is to find file names based upon a pattern locate is much simpler.

ondoho · 10-24-2017, 02:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by peter7089

It kind of works but also lists paths from /proc directory with 'permission denied' at the end of the line even so i am running the command as root. I guess it's better to stick with 'locate' command for that kind of searches.

use find with '2>/dev/null' appended.
it's also good to remember that locate and find do two fundamentally different things.

!!! · 10-24-2017, 02:50 PM

I like the -xdev (== -mount) switch, as long as I keep in mind what filesystems I have, from df
There's also a slightly more advanced -fstype https://www.gnu.org/software/finduti...mono/find.html

MadeInGermany · 10-24-2017, 05:30 PM

An attempt of an "automatic" prunefs.
The idea for excluding special file systems comes from the RH/CentOS /etc/cron.daily/mlocate.cron.
So this is actually very much like "locate".

Code:

prunefs=$( < /proc/filesystems awk '$1 == "nodev" && $2 != "zfs" { print o,"-fstype",$2; o="-o" }' )
find / \( $prunefs \) -prune -o -path '*init.d*' -print